Chop Suey Books had a 24 hour book event between Saturday and Sunday at noon. It included a petting zoo with an emu, yoga, author’s readings, a jazz band and puppet shows.
Cheryl Pallant, an English teacher at the University of Richmond, read her story “Bones.” It involved a woman returning from the grave as a skeleton, and her attempt to reconcile her relationship with her living husband. The author dimmed the lights and read with a penlight because growing up she’d tell stories by firelight. Occasionally the crowd laughed, such as when she had the wife say she was thin enough to be a model. She has published three books.
Another speaker was Nathan Long, an assistant professor of American literature and creative writing at Virginia Union University who has published short stories. He read haikus and other poems.
Anna Virginia Dreesen has performed from the Mississippi to the East Coast on two tours. She went to major cities like New York and Philadelphia and traveled with bands like The South from Florida, and Ultradolphin from Philadelphia.
Her first performance was in Richmond. Dreesen is a puppeteer who makes the puppets herself.
Anne Teske, a VCU graduate, helped her with this performance.
“She’s a good friend,” Teske said. “The show is mostly Anna and different people help her out at different times.”
Stan McCullen said, “For Richmond, this is pretty incredible.”
VCU students liked it: Courtney Taylor found it “oh so cute.”
The first puppet performance was at 8 p.m. It was made for a friend’s daughter’s seventh birthday party. Since the short show was a fairy tale, one had to suspend realism. One performer put the cardboard puppets on the screen in front of a bright spotlight.
Another performer played a guitar and narrated. He asked questions to the audience to get feedback. Occasionally the audience disagreed about what a puppet was supposed to be, such as a carrot or jalape